


didn't have to call it loneliness (the Hunger remix)

by Highsmith (quimtessence)



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Ambiguous Relationships, Character Study, F/F, POV Alternating, POV Ginny Weasley, POV Luna Lovegood, POV Multiple, Remix, Remix Revival 2019, Self-Esteem Issues
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-16
Updated: 2019-09-16
Packaged: 2020-10-04 18:38:02
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,159
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20475695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quimtessence/pseuds/Highsmith
Summary: Luna and Ginny.Ginny and Luna.Sometimes, it's all about the point of view.





	didn't have to call it loneliness (the Hunger remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * For [thinkatory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkatory/gifts).
  * Inspired by [Quirky](https://archiveofourown.org/works/60108) by [thinkatory](https://archiveofourown.org/users/thinkatory/pseuds/thinkatory). 

> Title from "Hunger" by Florence + the Machine.

**Quirky.**

Time flies when one is deliberately attempting to stifle contact with one's peers.

In actuality, Luna isn't hiding so much as enjoying the brief reprieve from the noise and crowds and unspoken bits people shy away from in the hopes of burying them. From the meaningless words flung around at maximum speeds. From the things she wishes she could magic away, as if a simple spell, or potion, or flick of the wand could ever change a person. Anyone would need some respite.

As it is, she's found the perfect place, more than she could have hoped, to avoid anyone happening by, even those she sometimes wished would, because it's easier to walk away than it is to stay. There are too many ways to count in which she's found that out. Thus she goes searching for the places others have already left.

Daisies don't mean much if no one's there to appreciate them, but she knows what a lot of people don't. That the daisy will still bloom, even out of sight, as long as the sun still shines on it, and it'll be even more beautiful for it being hidden from its like.

A thought rises to the surface. A chance meeting, imagined. But the places one has walked away from are the least likely to be visited again.

And even if they were. If they would be. Well.

She feels as if she were a symphony of dissonant moving parts compared to dear Ginevra. Nails on a chalkboard. Hardly worth visiting.

**Expectations.**

The expectations are the worst. Everyone should know that to be true, but it seems Ginny's the only one aware. It's enough for her to look out into a crowd to see how they eat away at themselves from underneath the looming shadow of what they believe they should be.

She asks Luna about it, when she finds her by herself, daisies piled on high into the empty classroom. The air sizzles with the remnants of magic.

"Not particularly," says Luna.

Ginny frowns.

"Then what? You never feel it?"

"I try not to."

Ginny isn't a mean person, a bully, but it's difficult to comprehend this utter lack of Luna's towards what's external. Try as she might, Ginny can't do it, can't stop thinking about it at the drop of a pin.

There are things one can ignore, provided one tries, but the second skin of what's expected isn't one of them. Luna is an odd one, and maybe that makes it easier, easier to walk away, or to not be overwhelmed at all. That's just not Ginny.

Ginny leaves her among her fallen daisies, footsteps loudly obnoxious on her way out, but one can hardly help it.

**Friendships.**

They're friends. Only Luna can't stop staring. Only Ginny sometimes avoids her for better, less silly company.

It's the way things are. It's normal, she's been told. Not at all how they should be, if she were the one telling it, if she were asked about it, but it's friendship. They're friends.

**Easy.**

Secrets are easy. You get told one and you keep it. It's not difficult, for Merlin's sake, but Luna isn't telling her anything, and Ginny isn't exactly pleased. They're friends, but Luna isn't speaking to her anymore, or she's ignoring her, or something. Something weird and unnatural, not the type of oddly charming she usually us.

It has Ginny snapping at people she wants to be nice to, snapping at Harry, being cross with Ron for no reason, cold-shouldering Hermione for a perceived slight. Not at all on.

*

The problem is she can't just walk around Hogwarts looking for Luna because, let's face it, that would take eons. The castle is the best place to hide in all of Britain, probably the world, and time flies too quickly.

Which makes it double, extra odd to find Luna wandering by the Great Hall exactly as Ginny was considering giving up altogether on finding her. It's so surprising Ginny almost misses her. Shocking like walking through a ghost about to disappear.

"Were you always here?" she asks, almost sounding cross for no reason she can pinpoint.

"Usually," Luna replies.

It's such a Luna answer Ginny almost wants to dig around in the vowels and consonants of that one word until she finds the truth behind it, the way it probably applies to this situation and to everything Luna is so perfectly it defies comprehension.

"Right," she says instead. What can one say?

"Do you want to go by the lake?" Luna asks, and Ginny doesn't, she's tired after walking around to find her, feet sore and head gently throbbing, but she says, "All right," anyway, because it would be stupid of her not to, at this point, and she's not stupid, not for this.

*

The day is warm, the sun shining pleasantly against her hair and the uncovered skin on her legs as they lay on the grass. Spring. Not yet fully in bloom, but pleasant, almost summer in the air.

Ginny is happy she said yes.

*

Later, they walk around the grounds. It's chilly in the evenings, but she doesn't mind. Not yet. A charm could fix that easily, but the goosebumps are sensitive to the touch as she bends to brush the skin on her legs.

"We can go inside if you're cold," Luna says. It would be easy, but Ginny doesn't want to go inside the castle, where all the people are, so very badly, that the feeling of simply not wanting to hits her so strongly it might have been a Bludger after all.

"That's all right."

"I don't mind. Not at all."

"Let's not. Let's walk around more."

"Are you sure?"

Ginny grabs her arm, grips it tightly, and then walks them off, not a pleasant slow pace, but quickly as if they are running away. She slows it down later, but it's fine now, they're in no danger anymore, they can walk around.

*

It's fully dark when they get back. It's been the longest walk. Enjoyable. Maybe tiring, but she can't feel it. Can't feel anything other than utterly content.

"Do you want to go back?"

She has to ask. She can't leave it up in the air. They're walking back, but it's suddenly so very important to hear Luna say it.

"Not particularly."

She wants to shake her, shake a definite no or yes from her willowy, pale body. Shake something definite she can latch onto before it's too late.

Too late for what, she's not quite sure. But she needs it utterly and completely.

She says, "Fine," instead. It is fine. It's what it should be.

*

Daisies are weird flowers. Utterly pointless. Can't use them for much more than little flower crowns. Not used in potions. Barely noticeable.

She dreams of daisies, but not on a field. Daisies between brick walls. But in full bloom. Summer sunshine emanating from inside them. It's only a dream.


End file.
